The Howard Block is a historic commercial building at 93–97 Main Street in

Brockton, Massachusetts Brockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population was 105,643 at the 2020 United States census. Along with Plymouth, Massachusetts, Plymouth, it is one of the two county seats of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, ...

. Built in 1876, it forms (along with the adjacent

Lyman Block The Lyman Block is a historic commercial building at 83-91 Main Street in Brockton, Massachusetts. Built in 1876 for a local business group, it is a fine local example of Italianate style, and one of the elements of a group of four well-preserve ...

), an important nexus of commercial development of the post-Civil War era in Brockton. The block listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1982.

Description and history

The Howard Block is located in downtown Brockton, across Main Street from

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

, and immediately adjacent to the similar Lyman Block. It is a four-story structure, built out of load-bearing brick and covered by a flat roof. It has granite corner

quoining Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, t ...

, and brownstone window lintels with keystones and shoulders. The main facade is crowned by a bracketed cornice. Most of the windows are sash, with doubled windows in the center bay. The block was built in 1876, during a period of prosperity driven by the success of Brockton's shoe industry in the years after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. It was built by the owners of Howard, Clark & Co., a manufacturer of furniture and funerary caskets. The same owners also built the Lyman Block in the same year, and it is in that building where they located their business, while this edifice was built as a speculative venture and leased to other businesses. The building is named for a member of one of Brockton's oldest families, and originally housed facilities for the local chapter of the

International Order of Odd Fellows The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political, non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Odd Fellows, Order ...

on the top floor. At some point in the early 20th century, the central bays were of the main facade were removed and replaced by a glass curtain wall; this change was reversed to some degree in when the building was adapted for senior housing in 1979.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Commercial blocks on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Brockton, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Plymouth County, Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References